#517- Amazon Seller Success Stories from Germany & Latin America

Video of the episode at the bottom

What happens when you blend the minds of Adriana Rangel and Marcus Mokros, hosts of the popular Serious Sellers Podcast Spanish and German shows, with the world of Amazon and its ever-evolving marketplace? As it turns out, a captivating concoction of strategies, trends, and real-life success stories. From the transition from UPC codes to QR codes to new monthly networking calls for Spanish and German-speaking audiences to an imminent event in Germany – we dissect it all with our esteemed guests. We talk about special highlights featuring their recent guests.

Buckle up as we take a ride through the ups and downs of outdoor sports sales on Amazon with two seasoned sellers. One recounts their thrilling journey from a booming 2020 to a challenging 2021, all leading to a triumphant comeback in 2023. Hear their plans for product expansion and driving website traffic, and learn from their experiences. From across the pond, our European seller shares his wisdom on improving product images, revealing two crucial photography tips. We also touch on the advent of a novel 3D rendering service, eliminating the need for physical product delivery to a photography studio. All this while emphasizing the critical role technology plays in growing an Amazon business.

Did you ever wonder how selling on Amazon varies across different European countries? We’ve got you covered as we compare and contrast Amazon sales in the top five European countries: the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. We navigate through the VAT-related intricacies in these nations and how Amazon aids in VAT declarations. Find inspiration in the story of a successful Spanish seller who has grown her Amazon business with a unique approach – collaborating with artisans in Spain and Mexico through Amazon Handmade. We also chat about avoiding burnout while scaling up your Amazon business, ensuring a healthy work-life balance. Wrapping up the episode, we shine the spotlight on two entrepreneurs who’ve built flourishing podcast communities and Amazon businesses. This journey is filled with challenges, triumphs, plans for the future, and valuable advice for budding entrepreneurs. So tune in for an episode filled with information, inspiration, and innovation.

In episode 517 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Adriana, and Marcus discuss:

• 00:00 – Tips and Strategies From SSP Spanish and German Hosts
• 01:19 – Celebrating Podcast Milestones and New Networking Calls
• 06:33 – Insights From Amazon 
• 08:28 – Trends in Outdoor Sports Sales
• 14:42 – Using AI Tools for Content Creation
• 18:19 – Build Brand With Technology and VA’s 
• 20:50 – VAT and Selling Strategies on Amazon
• 24:11 – Artisan Networks in Spain and Mexico 
• 29:19 – Uniqueness and Innovation in Saturated Niches
• 31:50 – Tips for Balancing Work and Relaxation
• 36:06 – Amazon’s AI Strategy for Product Listings
• 37:55 – Celebrating Podcast and Amazon Success

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we’ve got the host of our Spanish and German podcast back and they’ve got lots of tips and strategies from themselves and their guests on a wide variety of topics, such as Amazon, image creation, KDP, amazon handmade European marketplaces and much more. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hey guys. Heads up, Kevin King is the new host of the AM/PM Podcast, so if you love Amazon strategy, make sure to subscribe to it. Whatever you’re listening to this podcast on, take a listen to AM slash PM podcast just by searching for it on that platform. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the series sellers podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That’s a completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies or serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world, and we’ve got a couple of our host from different parts of the world here today. We’ve got Adriana from Mexico and Marcus, who is in Europe right now. Welcome back to the show, guys.

Adriana:

Hi Bradley, thank you for having us.

Bradley Sutton:

It’s really great to have you both here. This is now. We just celebrated two full years of Serious Sellers Podcast and Espanol Serious Sellers Podcast of Deutsch, and the numbers have been going up, you know, record months this year. It’s really great to see what you guys have created just from zero, like literally zero, and now you’ve got podcasts that are listened to by thousands of people out there. We have YouTube now, you know, for the podcast. So, guys, make sure, if you speak German or Spanish, you need to be listening to Serious Sellers Podcast and Espanol or Alph Deutsch. You can search for either of that on whatever you’re listening to this on, even on YouTube now. Now we’re doing full videos so you can get kind of like a better vibe of it as well. So guys, this is this is really cool. And just one more thing that’s new We’ll go ahead and promote it right now is that you guys are now hosting in Spanish and German like monthly networking calls, zoom calls, for Spanish and German speaking community. So, Adriana, tell us about yours like, like when we just had the first one on December 6, but is it always like on the 6th, or is it going to be like the second Tuesday of each month, or how is yours going to work and how can people sign up for it?

Adriana:

Yes, of course we’re meeting the first Wednesday of every month, so I’m not sure what that is for January, but of course that’s going to change for February as well. So basically, the first Wednesday of every month at 6pm, Mexico City time and people can sign up. They just need to visit our link, h10.me/llamadaconadriana and that’s it. You can, and that way you will get the reminders and the link to join us in a live call networking call every Wednesday.

Bradley Sutton:

All right Now, Marcus, you too are just had your first ever German call in December, but starting in January. When is it going to be? And also, what is the link for it?

Marcus:

Yeah, we want to keep it simple. It’s the first Monday of the month, 12 o’clock, and the link is h10.me/elite-de.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, h10.me/elite-de for German speakers. And when you say 12pm, that’s 12pm Germany time, 12pm German time. Correct, speaking of Germany. Guys, I’m going to be in Germany. I’m not sure if anybody out there is going to be in in town, but I’m going to be out there on January 27th in Berlin. I’m going to be speaking at an event and also I will be hosting an elite workshop. So if you guys are interested in going for the event I’m speaking at h10.me/germany. So h10. h10.me/germany. All right, enough of the kind of like logistics here. I think, hopefully, if you’re a Spanish or German speaking person, you got enough information there to take advantage of these. Everything we just mentioned is free resources for the community. But you know, you guys, let’s start off with. What I like to do is because I don’t. You know, I obviously can’t speak German, so I can’t listen to the episodes and understand what’s going on. So I’m going to first start with you, marcus. What are some notable guests you’ve had in the year that really had like some really cool strategies or really cool story that you can relate to us?

Marcus:

Yeah, really some really awesome guests and it’s hard to make any kind of selection. But one recent one was from GS1, the company who is doing the UPC codes, and the employee. He told me that they are preparing a big change. They want to go in the next couple of next years from barcodes to QR codes and they call it as a 3D code, and that will be more than just a number to identify your product. That will have like access for you to, for marketing, for example, the customer. Obviously, obviously the shop can scan the QR code, see the price, but the customer can scan it as well and you can put your promotions in it or, for example, like giveaways, anything, and he says it will even support promotions day by day. You can have one promotion set on a Monday, something different on a weekend, or like if there’s like a bad batch should produced, you can add it into that QR code and the cashier will know I shouldn’t sell that. So there will be a lot of functions and features coming and I mean that’s where that will be a big task. They will have to change all systems in all shops worldwide. That will be something very interesting for marketing.

Bradley Sutton:

Huh, interesting, yeah, I mean because you know the traditional barcodes is kind of like what the world’s been used to for so long, but the move to QR and having extra information, that’ll definitely be interesting. Alright, going to Adriana now, the first kind of story that comes from your mind, or Stragia, or something that’s one of your guests in the last year talked about.

Adriana:

Yeah, well, one of the highlights is that we had Amazon join us on a call or on an episode for the podcast, maybe a couple of weeks ago, maybe two or three weeks ago and that was great because we had the opportunity to ask them stuff such as you know, what’s up with seller support, how can we best go about getting an issue fixed and, let’s say, something happens to your listing, your listing is down, or an FBA shipment, or you know, these things we deal with as a sellers on a weekly basis, right, and so that was a big one. I was very excited to have them on a call because, you know, it’s our opportunity to get answers right, instead of, you know, searching in forums or asking other people. It came directly from them and they gave us really interesting tips for how to go about certain issues and also they shared with us really interesting well insights, of course, but also resources on how we can learn more about the platform, etc. Right, and I think that this is very valuable because it comes directly from the how do you say, the horse’s mouth? Or, yeah, I guess, directly from Amazon. So that was a lot of fun. That was two weeks ago and, as I said, for me, the main takeaway that I got from them was basically how to work the seller support system to get them to answer and fix our issue, as opposed to getting you know, like the template response that we sometimes get when they don’t understand. What is it that we need help with?

Bradley Sutton:

I’m curious how are your own Amazon businesses going? Like, are you, do you think you’re going to be up this year than before, or how things been going for you?

Adriana:

So for me, 2023 has been a good year, actually compared to 2022. 2022 was weird. I sell in the outdoors sports category, so 2020 was amazing because, of course, at least the second half of 2020, because, of course, everyone wants to be out of the house and in some place. You know that was outdoors, not indoors at a restaurant or at a mall. So it was. It was a great year sales wise, 2021 as well. 2022. It had, yeah, I experienced a deep, I would say, because everyone was, you know, out and back in the clubs and the restaurants and the concerts and all of that. So people just forgot about outdoor sports. And then 2023 came back strong. Of course, I did focus a lot on my ranking and, yeah, basically, like optimizing my listing and all of that, my images especially. I was like you know what, like if I up my conversion rate, then everything else will fall into place in a way, you know, like my ads and all of that. I do my own PPC, but I’m like you know what, as long as the conversion goes up, then I can send as much traffic as I want via ads and it should convert right, Like it should turn into sales. So 2023 was great and I’m hoping for a good 2024. I want to expand my product line and I also want to work on getting more traffic to my website and, yeah, basically growing that channel too.

Bradley Sutton:

Now going back to Marcus, what about for your Amazon businesses, your communities? What’s some trends that you’ve seen this year like, especially since your community and you are mainly selling in Europe? Like are things in? Is there inflation in Europe? Is things getting harder? Is competition getting more? What’s going on in the European Amazon market?

Marcus:

It’s an interesting question because, like over the years, I always got that kind of question is it still worth it? Should you still start Amazon? But that somehow that dried out. Everybody knows that Amazon is big and I mean like yeah, like the whole world is in a tough time, I guess, right now. But as I see it, like Amazon sellers, they are doing good, they’re doing well.

Bradley Sutton:

On the strategy side. You know like one of your specialties and you have people in your community who are specialists about this is like photography and things like that what do you see as kind of like working? Now, what’s some tips you can give the audience about, like how they can really make sure their image deck and or videos are really better than the competition?

Marcus:

Yeah, actually I have two photography related tips and first one is from JP. He was a guest in the podcast. He’s quite young guy but like living the dream, traveling to through Bali, Thailand and doing Amazon FBA. He’s like selling a lot and he also started a photography business. But he has a totally different approach. He doesn’t need your product. You’re providing photos from your smartphone. You get a tutorial. You have to send him six photos from every site and here’s a team who does a 3D rendering of that product and, um, that way he’s at a price point that’s just a fraction that you expect for a product photography. And, yeah, his team will do a 3D model of your product that looks like totally photo realistic and they will put it into a lifestyle photos, put it into Infographics and send you the whole products as a product shots that you expect, but without touching your products. And I mean one.

Marcus:

One thing is interest. It’s interesting for people who sell, who just start out, or sell products that have like two thousand five thousand dollars of revenue, but also people who don’t have time, because imagine your product is being produced in China right now and you don’t have a master sample right now and as soon as the first product is finished in China, you can ask your manufacturer Do these photos for me with your smartphone, send it over. He does your product shots and the moment your delivery arrives in your local warehouse, you already have your listing completed. By the way, that website is JPD Dash advertising dot com.

Bradley Sutton:

And yeah, that’s what I think I remember. You know, I again I remember. I don’t, you know, I don’t speak German, but I remember that episode because I look at the videos just just like see how they look. And he looked like a, like, a Like, almost like a, like a tick tock celebrity or something like crazy, crazy hair right, yeah, okay there. There we go cool. So that, yeah, that’s interesting because Just recently, amazon announced that there’s no longer going to be the three hundred and sixty degree Images that have been for a while. Like, if you look at the project X coffin shelf, it has it like we didn’t we didn’t put it there, amazon just did it themselves. It’s being replaced with a 3D image that I think you can you can still like, turn around and then they were saying that all they need they’re making some kind of app where you can actually take the images with your phone, and then the Amazon app, I’m assuming, or something, yeah, and then submit it. So that’s interesting. You know Concept, because you know, like, I’m still using, like, traditional photography studios and that’s. You know, logistically, you know you have to send the product there and then they you know they have to shoot it. So have you seen images that? Or have you seen listings that actually came from this model where they just take the pictures and they do it 3D and it looks realistic, or what’s your experience with looking at?

Marcus:

Yeah, I mean, I saw it on his listings he sells thirty thousand units a month, and he’s just using his service, of course. How many units thirty thousand a month is selling? Europe, US, Japan?

Bradley Sutton:

Wow, it’s quite, quite busy cool all right, so that’s a good one. Let’s go back to a either a strategy or some kind of cool story from your experience.

Adriana:

Yes, going back to technology, per per Marcus comments I feel like many people, many sellers, that want to Be able to grow without having to invest all of their money into, you know, launching a ton of SK use or Paying people to to write blog posts for them or kindle books for them, etc. I am seeing how many people that come on the podcast. They say how they Work with either either they do and themselves, basically they they use to create content. They are using this To, such as me, journey, etc. Ai tools basically to help them create content, to help them generate user generating content, etc. Right, and so I chatted with Casspin. She was episode 90, actually episode 100 a couple weeks ago and she was telling me how she will.

Adriana:

First of all, the way she Gets ideas on how to expand her product line. She goes to her competitors stores and she’s like, okay, let me see what else they’re selling, right, and they some. And she sometimes finds ideas that way for complimentary or supplementary products to grow her product line and she says that it’s actually very easy to launch this new SK use because, of course, you already has the Relationship with the manufacturer and it’s a matter of basically just sending other products that can be, that can actually, you know, sell on their own or become kids, right, or become a brand new SK you and she was telling me how she even launches act With every SK you that she, or with every main product that she launches on their her brand. And so, of course, she, she can do this very easily because she can either get a BA to write it for her that that content for the Kindle book, or she can do it be a chat GPT, which I think it’s like you know, this is something we couldn’t do maybe a year ago, right, and that way, she, of course, she adds a thank you card inside of the store and then you know, for them to get the free Kindle book, because it’s, I feel like people see a Kindle book Like a more valuable, I would say, gift as opposed, as you know, like just like a regular, regular PDF. And so you know she tells them that they will, that she will give them that Kindle book, access to the Kindle book, for free.

Adriana:

And then she gets that email and then, of course, through email marketing, basically she sends a coupon For, you know, 10% off, 20% off, so they shop the product via her Shopify page, basically right, and that’s how she starts creating her email list. And then, of course, she has when, when people visit her site, her Shopify site, they see that she has, you know, six or eight SK use, right, and so people, I feel like six or eight SK use, it’s a good enough quantity to you know, for people to see like, oh, you know, this is a legit brand, right, like this is not a brand that you know, only has one product and that’s it. And she says that it’s like a fairly easy and it doesn’t exhaust her, basically her resources to launch up, you know, like a complete brand off of one product. Really, you know she finds the main product and then she gets ideas on what else to add, what other SK use to add and, of course, grow her Shopify brand.

Adriana:

Get that images from either me, journey or, you know, get different variations of the content, charge EPT for the, for the text, for the Kindle, or, if you want to, I mean you can create the first draft with charge EPT and then have a VA. Basically, look, you know, do some editing on on on her part, and that’s about it, and I was like, okay, I mean that sounds like like something we can all do. Even I feel like when I have some guests in the podcast, I tried to find Useful information for sellers that are starting out and that maybe they have a full time job right and they don’t have, you know, eight or 10 hours a day to put into this business. Or, and maybe they don’t have a ton of you know money to put into the business. So, finding ways to basically leverage technology and leverage you know help from VA’s etc. To to build a brand and, you know, have a brand in a matter of maybe six months.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, she doing this in English or Spanish English, in the US market English, okay, all right, cool, marcus in. Let me give you a couple scenarios here. Talking about Amazon Europe, under what scenario would you suggest somebody in or outside of Europe to, or would you suggest that they only launch in one marketplace to start like, hey, you know, go ahead and start in UK, or go ahead and start in Germany? Or would you always recommend you know, you should go ahead and take advantage of the Amazon Europe network and at least start in a few marketplaces? Is there a scenario where you would suggest one or the other, or it’s all one or all the other?

Marcus:

I mean, like it’s up to you If you’re from the US, you could start in UK and you already can reuse your listing, your PPC campaigns, because it’s the same language. Germany is the biggest market. That would be also a great test if your product works in Europe and if it works in Germany, you could go to the smaller markets. I mean, france is still a quite big, italy and Spain as well, and then it gets a lot smaller. But yeah, that could be a good strategy to start in one of the bigger countries to test your product and then go all Europe.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay Now, as far as those smaller ones go, like are there any that you think is going to one day become, you know, better than the others? Because I think the core five is the UK, germany, Italy, france and Spain, and then like there’s a big gap, you know, between all of the new ones Like I forgot, like Netherlands and Poland and a bunch of others. Like are there any of those lower ones that you think are better than the other? Or they’re all kind of just like equally low?

Marcus:

Yeah, I mean, it’s a question of the population and I guess, like the Scandinavian countries are also very interesting. But yeah, you already named the top countries for the moment.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay. So now I’m just curious about like VAT and things like that. So let you know, there’s obviously not an Amazon in every country, so I’m assuming that, or you correct me if I’m wrong, but if I’m living in Austria, am I ordering from Amazon Germany? Or what website am I using if I’m just living in that country trying to buy something?

Marcus:

Yeah, actually, austria shares the website with Germany. You order from the German website.

Bradley Sutton:

And then. So in that case, like I know, like with for VAT, do I have to have VAT in every country? I’m selling things in from day one, or it’s only until I hit, like a certain kind or amount of revenue in that country. Is it by country or by marketplace? But and what I mean by that is all right, well, there is no marketplace in Austria, so does that mean I never have to have a VAT for Austria? Or or how even does this work, because I’ve never sold it?

Marcus:

over. That’s a good question, and that’s where it gets a bit complicated. So Austria shares the website with Germany, but there are warehouses in Austria and as soon as you got your products in the warehouse in that country, then you have to register for a VAT number in every single country that you have your products in and regardless how much you sell. Yes, and Amazon has has has a program for that, where they help you with that VAT declarations.

Bradley Sutton:

Back to Adriana another story or strategy that you can share with us.

Adriana:

I interviewed Noemi from Spain I know there’s a big, big community in in Spain that basically they, they do Amazon full time and she was telling me how actually she works with another two partners I have one of her partners here at the podcast too and she was telling me how she is growing her Amazon business through Amazon handmade. And I was like, oh interesting, because I mean, yeah, I mean I guess we usually we focus on, you know the regular Amazon program to launch you know products. And she was telling me how she works with people, people that artisans I wait, yeah, that’s the correct term, right, artisans, is that a term in English?

Bradley Sutton:

Yeah, I mean, that’s English, but it’s too fancy for my language. But I know what that means.

Adriana:

Yes, she basically so. She likes doing, you know, handmade stuff for herself too. But she started basically connecting with artisans in Spain, apparently and I didn’t know this I mean, I’ve traveled to Spain for, for vacations, but I haven’t, you know, spent much time there. But she was telling me that there’s a big, big network of artisans in Spain and of course, as she was saying this, I was like, oh my God, I mean I’m from Mexico and of course, there are a ton of artisans here in Mexico, like a ton, ton, ton, especially cities such as, like, of course, Mexico City, Guadalajara, etc. And she was telling me how she has scaled this, because that thing I guess the first thing that comes to mind to us Amazon sellers were like, yeah, but how are we going to scale this, this business? And she’s managing I mean she’s, she’s managing to scale her business because she, of course she doesn’t do or like work on this product herself, of course, right, Like she has a network of artisans.

Adriana:

And I was, I was thinking, as she was telling this to me, I was like yeah, that’s true. I mean I see, when I travel to the US, how much more expensive, or like highly priced, these products that we manufacture in Mexico are selling in the US, right? Only because they’re like unique and they are and they are just like more attractive than you know like the regular products. And I was like, oh, wow, this is interesting. Like I guess I always knew that there was that option over there, but I just didn’t see how we could scale that. But it makes sense. I mean, if you just work with artisans and you already know, you know like you start and of course one artisan connects you with another artisan and that’s the way it goes and she’s I mean, she sells a lot of, you know, at the end of the day, a lot of units of different SKUs and you know the price point.

Adriana:

That’s at least where my mind went right. I was like you have no competition really, because if it’s something very unique, then of course you can play with your pricing strategies, but usually you won’t be concerned with you know someone else, that competitor, lowering their prices or you know going 30% off. You know of the sales price, etc. So I was like that’s interesting. I mean, even you don’t have to be selling a ton of units a day to be making good money, because if you have 40% margins or 50% margins or even more, because I’ve seen in, you know in the US at the retail shops how they sell Mexican or yeah, artisan you know this type of products and they sell and I’m like what the hell like, do people buy these products at this price? And I know how much they go for in Mexico. So I was like, oh, this is very interesting. And so I thought that was a very interesting. I think that was episode 98 with Noemi. She’s based in Spain and yeah, I mean, Spain has a big next to us.

Bradley Sutton:

Is she doing all of this in Spain, or is she doing this in Amazon USA?

Adriana:

No, amazon. No, she’s doing it in Spain and I think she expanded already to Europe. Basically, you know how they have that.

Bradley Sutton:

I didn’t even know there was Amazon, handmade in Europe, in Spain and other. Okay, interesting yeah. It’s like oh interesting because definitely a way to make it the key, that of that you mentioned, there is the no competition. You know, like, like. This is a very unique product. It’s not a cookie cutter, you know, by definition. So I like that Back to Marcus. One last story or strategy from you.

Marcus:

Yeah. One last story that’s from Michael. He doesn’t sell on Amazon. He runs an Amazon agency called me to you, but he’s like the Amazon detective. He’s every day on the website looking what is Amazon testing right now? What, what did they change right now? What do other sellers miss? And he’s like he comes with the craziest things. And one thing he told me, like would you start to sell a drinking bottle on Amazon? I mean that’s like super competitive, me probably not, yeah, and I mean everything is the same. You just fill water in it and that’s it. So it’s difficult to stand out and there’s a company they found a way to differentiate themselves. It’s called Arup and they have a small cartridge on top and you can get it in all kinds of flavor, like sherry, melon, whatever. And when you drink your water you still drink 100% water, but you breathe the sherry flavor. So your mind is drinking like sherry juice, but you’re still drinking 100% water. But the thing is he pointed out that they just sell the bottle and the cartridges. But if you have, like, all your different flavors and you want to change them during the week, what do you do with your cartridges? So you need like airtight, sealed box for it and people are searching for that. You can see it in Cerebro but they don’t sell it. They just concentrate on their bottle. So every Amazon seller should find like an imagine like Apple are selling just their iPhone and you can sell chargers and cases, like I bet there’s like in every niche there’s something, yeah, and it’s a big innovation and the company is just focusing on the product. So, yeah, that was a really awesome takeaway to look for.

Bradley Sutton:

Two things there. Number one is never think that a niche is 100% saturated, because there’s always, like, a fresh idea you could bring. And then number two you don’t always have to be the one that has that idea, you know, let somebody else come up with the idea. But then how can you take advantage of that? Like, is there a unique storage or a unique accessory that’s needed?

Marcus:

Maybe even a coffin shelf to store your cartridges.

Bradley Sutton:

Hey, there you go. Hey, coffin shelf to store your water bottle cartridges. I’ll get on that Okay An episode. I’ll give you guys, or everybody here, a preview of a coming episode. I’m launching some new project X products and one of them is a bat shaped bathroom mat or rug and that potentially might make a coffin one as well. But you know, the possibilities are endless and that’s one of the ways that you could also get into saturated niche is take a saturated niche like bath mats you know like they’re going for like $10, you know who knows how they’re even making margin on it. But then do you bring in a unique material like make a bamboo one, or make a coffin shaped one, or a bat shaped one for like spooky. So you can almost take any niche on Amazon that’s saturated and just come in with a unique idea or unique design or unique material and now all of a sudden it’s not saturated because you’re the only one who has that. All right. So I’m going to ask for your final strategies, your 30 second or 60 second tips. How can they find you guys on the interwebs? They know how to find your, your, your Helium 10 podcast, but both of you have, you know, audiences and communities out there. Marcus, how can they find your communities on the internet?

Marcus:

You can look on YouTube for Amazon FBA by Marcos and everything else is linked inside the videos.

Adriana:

For me, my YouTube channel is Adriana Rangel Vende. Just like that, adriana Rangel Vende, and yeah, in there, there you can find everything else that I have going on, and I have a free like 90 minute like masterclass. I would call it because I go from product research to like keyword research, to what kind of keywords you need to put in your listing, et cetera. So, yeah, I would. For people that maybe need some free resources to kind of like figure out how this works, I would advise you check out that video. Adriana Rangel Vende in YouTube.

Bradley Sutton:

All right, adriana. Like, do you have any last, maybe 30 second tip or parting words of wisdom for the audience out there?

Adriana:

Yes, well, you know, one topic that I’ve seen guests come with and share with us in the podcast has been basically focusing, you know, at the first. You know, when we start our business in Amazon, we usually focus on launching products right, and launching new variations, and doing your PPC and ranking and all of all of these activities that we have to, of course, take care of. But one topic that has been coming up very often in the in our episodes here at the podcast is that we at some point, especially maybe like two years into the business, we need to focus on growing our team, right, because if not, we’ll get burnt out at some point, right, like I know that happened to me and now I’m working, I already have a VA and, of course, I already have a designer that helps me, of course, with my you know, my products, my listings and also for my thumbnails for my YouTube channel. Like, he helps me for a ton of things, and I feel like that is the way. You know, that marks a big difference between someone that is making, of course, a few thousand dollars a month in Amazon and, you know, the seller that is doing several dozen thousand dollars in Amazon a month.

Adriana:

Right, because you cannot do it all by yourself, and also so you keep your motivation right, because at some point, whatever it is that you are doing repeatedly and that you’re doing for 10 hours a day or 12 hours a day, after 18 months or 24 months you’re burnt out. As much as I mean you can love it, but still you know your body gives out. So that is something that I would like people to start thinking about. Maybe this is your first year in Amazon and that’s fine, but maybe start listening to you know these episodes where people such as Rolando and I know you had Rolando Rosas in the podcast because he speaks English too you know Juan David as well talked about this, rod as well talked about this, and I think it’s just like very important to start planning this before it’s like, before we’re like burnt out and it’s too late, right, and that way we get we can scale faster and just like with less effort.

Bradley Sutton:

What’s your Adriana, what’s your hobby or what you do to take your mind off of work? You take off your mind off your Amazon business, to you know. Relax like what do you do for fun.

Adriana:

Yeah, well, before I got into this whole Amazon business world, I was in the art business. So I of course like to, you know, business museums and you know, if I can business museums with friends and all that that you know, the better, of course. But I try to yes, to, even if it’s like at nighttime, right, like I try to consume content that it’s not, or like even listen to podcasts that are not like business related. I basically try to put you know if it’s after 8pm, even though, even if there’s like this really good podcast episode, I’ll watch it tomorrow at 6pm or whatever when I take a break from work. But I try to put like hard limits because I just do it. I mean, I just do it for the business, right, like I remember I saw this at the other day that says that says something about your performance of tomorrow basically depends on your recovery tonight. Right, you know something in that frame of words and so I think it’s just very important because we talk about, we go on YouTube and we saw, we see everything about. Yeah, you know you can scale to blah, blah, blah and you can be making all this money, but you have to be feeling okay, right, you know, your body has to be healthy and your mind has to be healthy as well. So that is something to we cannot ignore, that, even if that doesn’t sound like you know, like the sexy tip, I feel like that’s as important, or even more. To grow a business, scale it to as big as as you want, really.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, I like killing two birds with one stone. So my advice to you if you wanted to do that, go to the museum while listening to the podcast in your headphones, and then now you can kill two birds with one stone, all right. So, marcus, what about you? One last 30 or 60 seconds strategy or tip for our audience.

Marcus:

Yeah, one tip I learned that will make a lot of changes. Amazon recently announced that they will look for title images that are not meeting the terms of service and they will use AI to change that. They will download your image, remove everything that doesn’t belong there in their opinion and upload it again, and that is something you don’t want. You don’t want an AI to touch your title image. Yeah, and Michael from AMZboost, a product photographer, he told me, just use your picture, space number nine. Nobody looks there. Put a title image there that will meet the terms of service and because what Amazon is doing first, they will scan your product photos and check if there is something that is compliant to the terms of service and they will put it to spot number one as your title image. And if they don’t find something, they will change it in their terms. So that’s an awesome hack.

Bradley Sutton:

Wow, I never heard of that one. That’s a really good one, All right, cool. And then same question to you also is you know, like me, that sometimes we can get and Adriana, we can get burnt out and if we put too much emphasis on work. So what are your hobbies, what are you doing to take yourself out of work when you need to relax?

Marcus:

Yeah, my hobbies are working out. I’ve got my home gym in the basement and that’s also a good place to listen to something. Or I go for a walk at the beach with my yeah EarPods in and listen to a podcast. That’s where I get new content.

Bradley Sutton:

Awesome, awesome, all right, well, guys, thank you so much for joining us. Wish you the most of success. You guys have had already a lot of great success. It’s going to be really cool to see the next milestone for you guys, I would say is like hitting that 10,000 downloads per month. I never thought that would ever happen, but the numbers that you guys are doing are getting close to that, so it’s probably within the realm of possibility. But I wish you the most of success with your podcast communities and also your Amazon businesses, and we’ll see you next year.

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